ETIM vs ECLASS: differences and how to choose (2026)

Choose ECLASS when an industrial customer or its procurement system requires it: ECLASS describes products and services across all industries in an ISO/IEC-compliant model and is licensed for a fee (except for association members).

The data recipient decides, not the product team's preference. That is why many manufacturers maintain both standards from a single attribute model in their PIM. Status as of 2026-11-11: the current releases are ETIM 10.0 (2024-12-05) and ECLASS 16.0 (2025-11-28), with ECLASS 17.0 announced for the end of November 2026.

How do ETIM and ECLASS differ?

Each standard classifies products and describes them with features, values and units. The differences start with scope and structure. The biggest one is the licence. The table compares them on the criteria that matter when you implement them in a PIM. Every row is based on documentation from ETIM International, itek and eclass.eu (sources at the end).

What is new in ETIM 10.0 and ECLASS 16.0?

ETIM 10.0 was published on 2024-12-05 after two years of work. Over that period 5,264 change requests were processed, 119 classes added and 33 deleted. Feature groups are new, and the class-to-group relation was rebuilt after the earlier merger of sectors. A mapping table eases the move from older versions; its first version lists additions and deletions, a second one is set to add successors for features and values.

ECLASS 16.0 was released on 2025-11-28. It added 995 classes (137 of them classification classes), 1,253 properties, 985 values and 126 value lists. Around 23,300 class definitions were generated with GPT-4o mini and flagged as such in the source-of-definition attribute. The release ships machine-readable update files that allow automated migration between versions.

For a company with data in a PIM the takeaway is plain. Every new release is a mapping project, not a cosmetic change. Teams that mapped classes by hand in a spreadsheet start over with each release.

When ETIM, when ECLASS, and when both?

• ETIM when the main channel is electrical, installation and heating wholesale and the data platforms around it. Those recipients most often expect ETIM data, usually inside BMEcat files.
• ECLASS when the buyer is industry: e-procurement systems and corporate purchasing catalogues, for example in automation or machine building. There, ECLASS can be a condition for getting onto the supplier list.
• Both when a manufacturer sells through technical distribution and directly to industry at the same time. Both mappings then come from one data model (see below).
• Neither, for now when no recipient asks for a standard. A solid internal attribute model, built so it can be mapped later, is enough.

So "ETIM or ECLASS" is often the wrong question. The right one is: which recipient requires what, and in which version.

How to run ETIM and ECLASS in one PIM

The rule we apply: one internal attribute model as the single source of truth, with the standards as output mappings. Each product feature is entered once. A mapping table says which ETIM feature and which ECLASS property it corresponds to, in which version of each standard.

1. An internal model that fits your range, not one standard.
2. Class and feature mappings kept separately for ETIM and ECLASS, each with the standard's version number.
3. Storage in the PIM: in Pimcore we usually keep standard classes and features in the Classification Store.
4. Export to BMEcat following the guidelines for the standard and the recipient. For ETIM there is now also ETIM xChange, the successor to ETIM BMEcat.
5. Migration on each new release using ETIM mapping tables and ECLASS update files, not from scratch.

That is how we worked at GTV Poland. Pimcore was already their central product data hub; we added ETIM classification with BMEcat export. On top of that came our own ETIM Mapper, which assigns ETIM classes and features from catalogue data. Project details: ETIM and BMEcat in Pimcore for GTV.

We cover each standard separately: what is ETIM, what is ECLASS and what is BMEcat. For other classifications, including UNSPSC, see classification standards in PIM. A practical checklist is in our ETIM and BMEcat guide.

Who we are and why we write about it

LemonMind, a Pimcore Platinum Partner and Ergonode partner based in Gdańsk, Poland, implements Pimcore, Akeneo and Ergonode. We implement product data standards in PIM: ETIM and BMEcat and other product data standards.